What are the Key Factors for Victory in the 2008 Presidential Election?

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In summary, the key factors for victory in the 2008 Presidential Election were the candidates' ability to connect with voters, the state of the economy and the overall political climate, and the use of effective campaign strategies. Barack Obama's strong message of hope and change resonated with many Americans, while John McCain struggled to distance himself from the unpopular incumbent president, George W. Bush. The economic crisis of 2008 also played a significant role, with many voters looking for a candidate who could offer solutions to the financial struggles facing the country. Additionally, Obama's effective use of social media and grassroots organizing helped him secure a strong base of support and ultimately win the election.

Who will win the General Election?

  • Obama by over 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 16 50.0%

  • Obama by under 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 6 18.8%

  • McCain by over 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 4 12.5%

  • McCain by under 15 Electoral Votes

    Votes: 6 18.8%
  • Total voters
    32
  • #806
Maybe the October surprise will be that half the GOP votes for Obama. :biggrin:
 
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  • #807
Astronuc said:
Maybe the October surprise will be that half the GOP votes for Obama. :biggrin:

It sure looks like it's going that way.

How sweet if Kissinger would bite the hand that feeds him after all McCain has referenced him.
 
  • #808
LowlyPion said:
It sure looks like it's going that way.

How sweet if Kissinger would bite the hand that feeds him after all McCain has referenced him.
Kissinger is headed into his sunset. What better way to cement his legacy than to abandon the neocons, with their disdain for diplomacy, and embrace the Obama ticket. Kissinger wants to be remembered as a statesman and a diplomat. Bush-Rove-Cheney have spent the last 8 years marginalizing diplomats and intelligent foreign policy advisers, as if the US can simply make demands that MUST be complied with by other countries, lest they be branded "enemies".
 
  • #809
Republican Former Governor of Minnesota Arne Carlson was just on MSNBC endorsing Obama as well.

The rout is on.
 
  • #810
Former Mass governor William Weld (R) has jumped on board, too.
 
  • #811
Ah but remember...McCain will always have Lieberman :-p:smile: !
 
  • #812
lisab said:
Ah but remember...McCain will always have Lieberman :-p:smile: !
:-p
 
  • #813
lisab said:
Ah but remember...McCain will always have Lieberman :-p:smile: !
We'll always have Paris...
 
  • #815
phoenixy said:
Bush early vote in Texas today, Friday.
I thought residents of Washington didn't get a vote?
 
  • #816
He voted by absentee ballot as a Texas resident.
 
  • #817
turbo-1 said:
We'll always have Paris...

Good one! :smile:
 
  • #818
Wow! Check out Indiana.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/in/indiana_mccain_vs_obama-604.html
 
  • #819
I think Indiana is a toss up.


Catch The ‘Wave’
Awash in money, the Dems may turn this into a party tsunami.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/165507

Democrats headed toward big gains in House, Senate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081025/ap_on_el_ge/congress_stakes
WASHINGTON – Democrats are on track for sizable gains in both houses of Congress on Nov. 4, according to strategists in both parties, although only improbable Southern victories can produce the 60-vote Senate majority they covet to help them pass priority legislation.

A poor economy, President Bush's unpopularity, a lopsided advantage in fundraising and Barack Obama's robust organizational effort in key states are all aiding Democrats in the final days of the congressional campaign.

"I don't think anybody realized it was going to be this tough" for Republicans, Sen. John Ensign, chairman of the party's senatorial campaign committee said recently. "We're dealing with an unpopular president (and) we have a financial crisis," he added.

"You've got Republican incumbent members of the Congress" trying to run away from Bush's economic policies, said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who chairs the House Democratic campaign committee. "And they can't run fast enough. I think it will catch up with many of them."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California predicted recently that Democrats would win at least 14 House seats in Republican hands.

But numerous strategists in both parties agreed a gain of at least 20 seems likely and a dozen or more GOP-held seats are in doubt. Only a handful of Democratic House seats appear in any sort of jeopardy. They spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying they were relying on confidential polling data.
. . . .


This is a great column by George Will - Conservatism: Not TBTF
http://www.newsweek.com/id/147762
. . . .
Domestically, the relationship between the national government and the nation's economy has changed more in recent weeks than at any time since the Depression. During the New Deal, the pell-mell expansion of government supervision of economic life was propelled primarily by fears generated by cascading events. But another propellant was a constellation of doctrines—about capitalism's "contradictions," "market failures" and the need for socialism, or at least "planning" through government control of the economy's "commanding heights." Today, the "social safety net"—a phrase that originally described aid for widows and orphans—is being radically enlarged to provide security for investors in large financial institutions. This enlargement is being improvised by conservative Republicans whose only doctrine is the theory of TBTF. The theory is that this or that institution is too big to (be allowed to) fail.

Today's surge of "conservative corporatism" began with the Bush administration's brokering of JPMorgan Chase's takeover of Bear Stearns. This let loose the argument—a non sequitur—that if the administration thinks the national interest is implicated in the survival of this or that big economic entity, the administration is morally obliged at least to acquiesce in Congress's solicitude for individuals with mortgage problems. The administration has restricted the free practice of capitalism between consenting adults—the short selling of the stocks of 19 financial institutions. And the administration wants Congress to cede to it the power of the purse, granting it an unlimited call on federal funds to guarantee Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's obligations.

The theory, which might be right, is that such a guarantee has always been "implicit" in the existence of such "government-sponsored enterprises" that are created by government to do something it favors, in this case, democratize access to housing loans. The theory also is that having the resources to bail out those two entities will make bailing them out unnecessary because investors will not lose confidence. Nevertheless, this looks like semi-socialism—keeping profits private, but socializing losses.
. . . .
 
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  • #820
Joe McCain calls 911 to complain about traffic congestion in Northern Virginia.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1008/563913_video.html?ref=newsstory
 
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  • #821
Satire: http://www.newsweek.com/id/40211?bcpid=1243698382&bclid=1815835711&bctid=1856933198#?l=1785302026&t=1856933198 :smile:
 
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  • #822
Joan_Walsh_Salon said:
The Ashley Todd hoax is much more disturbing, of course -- and what's worst about it is the role of the McCain campaign and conservative media in validating it. A local McCain communications staffer gave out details of the alleged attack that hadn't been confirmed by police. Both McCain and Palin called to console this lone staffer, again before the details of the attack could be confirmed, increasing its news value. Matt Drudge , of course, hyped the story hard. Fox News V.P. John Moody said the attack could lead some voters to "revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee." (Moody also said that "if the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting." We'll be watching for a Fox "Breaking News " alert declaring the McCain campaign officially "over," now that the hoax has been revealed.) Andrew Sullivan rounded up the conservatives who breathlessly advanced the story here.

Why were so many people on the right so ready to believe such a disturbing tale based on so little evidence? Was the story of a violent 6-foot-4-inch black man -- how tall is Obama? --punishing a white female McCain voter too good not to be true? It's hard not to see the troubled Ashley Todd's story, and its reception on the right, as a result of the climate of fear and demonization that McCain and Palin clearly believe is their only hope to win Nov. 4. Todd needs help, but McCain and Palin need to be criticized for helping to advance this story before the facts were in. It's really one of the most despicable things this awful team has done in a pretty lowlife campaign. There's no doubt in my mind that the anti-Obama slurs ("pallin' around with terrorists") that have come from Sarah Palin's lovely and expensively lacquered mouth helped create a climate that leads a disturbed person like Todd to her drama of victimization.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/?last_story=/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/10/25/palin_todd/
 
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  • #823
Hulu video of SNL Will Ferrell as Bush endorsing McPalin.

http://www.hulu.com/embed/6QYSrb9VZ_2SGcKMS-hKlQ

You just can't buy publicity like this.
 
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  • #824
Nice ad on YouTube. Wassuuuuuuup?!
 
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  • #825
turbo-1 said:
Nice ad on YouTube. Wassuuuuuuup?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE

Great ad. Thanks for posting it.
 
  • #826
LowlyPion said:
Hulu video of SNL Will Ferrell as Bush endorsing McPalin.

You just can't buy publicity like this.
:smile: Funny! and scary. :rolleyes:



I wonder when George Will will get around to endorsing Obama.
 
  • #827
Astronuc said:
I wonder when George Will will get around to endorsing Obama.

I think effectively his article last month did that. My guess is that he will vote for Obama whether or not he declares it.
 
  • #828
The Evangelical Fringe is at it again. This is one of those areas where religious beliefs become political beliefs.

Steve Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, a Pentecostal publication, titled one of his recent weekly e-mails to readers, "Life As We Know It Will End If Obama is Elected."

Strang said gay rights and abortion rights would be strengthened in an Obama administration, taxes would rise and "people who hate Christianity will be emboldened to attack our freedoms."

Separately, a group called the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has posted a series of videos on its site and on YouTube called "7 Reasons Barack Obama is not a Christian."

The commission accuses Obama of "subtle diabolical deceit" in saying he is Christian, while he believes that people can be saved through other faiths.

But among the strongest pieces this year is Focus on the Family Action's letter which has been posted on the group's Web site and making the e-mail rounds. Signed by "A Christian from 2012," it claims a series of events could logically happen based on the group's interpretation of Obama's record, Democratic Party positions, recent court rulings and other trends.

Among the claims:

• A 6-3 liberal majority Supreme Court that results in rulings like one making gay marriage the law of the land and another forcing the Boy Scouts to "hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys." (In the imagined scenario, The Boy Scouts choose to disband rather than obey).
Religious intolerence at it's finest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081025/ap_on_re_us/christian_right_attacks;_ylt=AhPJtV8VI2wBD1JLeG3Lw0DLLJ94
 
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  • #829
forcing the Boy Scouts to "hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys." (In the imagined scenario, The Boy Scouts choose to disband rather than obey).
That's shocking - small boys should only be allowed in the care of priests.
 
  • #830
Evo said:
The Evangelical Fringe is at it again.

What the heck?

A 6-3 liberal majority Supreme Court...

When the heck did that happen?

I thought that the court after all these years of Republicans had been turned to just a whisker short of Neanderthal.

Clinton only appointed Ginsburg and Bader and the rest were appointed by the Republicans - Ford 1, Reagan 2, Bush-I 2, Bush-II 2.

What Liberal Court? They have no one to blame but themselves for the Court.
 
  • #831
mgb_phys said:
That's shocking - small boys should only be allowed in the care of priests.
Or evangelical ministers. A local one was convicted of sexual assaulting a young boy while giving him a ride home from a sports event just about a year ago.
 
  • #832
LowlyPion said:
What the heck?



When the heck did that happen?

I thought that the court after all these years of Republicans had been turned to just a whisker short of Neanderthal.

Clinton only appointed Ginsburg and Bader and the rest were appointed by the Republicans - Ford 1, Reagan 2, Bush-I 2, Bush-II 2.

What Liberal Court? They have no one to blame but themselves for the Court.
It's fear mongering propaganda sent out by an ultra-Christian group.

The goal was to "articulate the big picture," said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior director of public policy for Focus on the Family Action. "If it is a doomsday picture, then it's a realistic picture," she said.
 
  • #833
Evo said:
It's fear mongering propaganda sent out by an ultra-Christian group.

Yeah well I got that part of it. It reeks of fear-mongering. I think it could have been written by that idiot Ralph Reed.

But to say things that are just so totally at odds with the facts ... Oy.
 
  • #834
Evo said:
It's fear mongering propaganda sent out by an ultra-Christian group.
Ummm - that group is not Christian, except in name only. I wish such groups would stop mis-representing Christianity and stop mis-appropriating that term. Their hostility and contempt for anyone outside of their group is contrary to what I was taught in the Christian tradition.
 
  • #835
LowlyPion said:
What the heck?



When the heck did that happen?

I thought that the court after all these years of Republicans had been turned to just a whisker short of Neanderthal.

Clinton only appointed Ginsburg and Bader and the rest were appointed by the Republicans - Ford 1, Reagan 2, Bush-I 2, Bush-II 2.

What Liberal Court? They have no one to blame but themselves for the Court.

Not only that, but the next three vacancies are likely to come from the remaining 4 liberal to moderate judges. At most, Obama could keep the court from shifting even further right, but would have little effect on shifting it to the left.
 
  • #836
No, if Obama gets elected, it will be the end of the world. Then we will all move to Alaska to be saved.

Come on people; everyone knows this.
 
  • #837
Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/palin.tension/index.html
Long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain are spilling out in public, sources say. Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with Palin "going rogue," and some advisers say they wonder if the incidents in which she has gone off message were deliberate.
. . . .
McCain sources say Palin has gone off message several times, and they privately wonder if the incidents were deliberate. They cited that she labeled robocalls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source tells CNN she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

"Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."
. . . .
Woah! McCain's campaign and the GOP are disintegrating.


Meanwhile

I'm so looking forward to

President Obama!​

:approve: :cool:​
 
  • #838
Janus said:
Not only that, but the next three vacancies are likely to come from the remaining 4 liberal to moderate judges. At most, Obama could keep the court from shifting even further right, but would have little effect on shifting it to the left.

Yes, but that takes all of the fun out of their argument.
 
  • #839
Astronuc said:
Ummm - that group is not Christian, except in name only. I wish such groups would stop mis-representing Christianity and stop mis-appropriating that term. Their hostility and contempt for anyone outside of their group is contrary to what I was taught in the Christian tradition.

It is blatant fascism.
 
  • #840
You have to admire Obama's strategy.

In the last week here comes the heavy artillery. And then his half hour Prime-Time. McPalin are reduced to squirt pistols and blame gaming in the face of superior fire power. This looks like a looming defeat in detail.
John_Broder_NYTimes said:
Bill Clinton to Campaign With Obama
By John M. Broder

Former President Bill Clinton will campaign with Senator Barack Obama for the first time on Wednesday at an evening rally in Orlando, a Clinton aide said. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will not attend, although she has done numerous events in the Sunshine State on behalf of Mr. Obama in the last month. And in the past week, she appeared with Mr. Obama in this crucial battleground state.

The Clintons have appeared at several rallies on behalf of the Democratic ticket, and appeared jointly with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. earlier this month in Scranton, Pa. But Mr. Clinton has not yet shared a stage with Mr. Obama.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/bill-clinton-to-campaign-with-obama/
 

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